the west bank experience (part 3)

today is the last day for "official" field work for documentary workshop class. so i hightailed it to hebron again, with the notion in mind that it will be my last time. boy, does it make me feel nostalgic. i decided to take egged this time for one reason or another. waiting for the bus was a different experience than the first because there were actually a lot of people milling around, mostly IDF. #160 was completely full. i was aware that there would be a difference in taking an israeli bus and an arab bus but i didn't realize that it would be so drastic. the first blatant difference are the vehicles. the egged bus resemble charter buses, air-conditioned, albeit without bathrooms in the back. the arab buses are old vans, with windows that open sometimes. next are the people. of course, only israelis ride the egged, which isn't to say that israelis do not ride arab buses but they don't make it a habit. the atmosphere was completely different. on the arab buses, the people are an amalgamation of the population. they bustle. they bump. they gossip. they are alive. on the egged, orthodox jews and IDF proliferate. the air is calm and silent. and the lady next to me kept scooting over as if i was diseased. the ride was pleasant, however, because i knocked out, waking up in kiryat arba.

upon my arrival in the old city, i walked around, taking pictures of the people (it's illegal for me but whatever) and the graffiti that occupy the landscape. it was much more livelier than the last i've been. little jewish kids riding bikes and running around. there wasn't much to see since most were out of sight inside so i made my way toward the city. i never had a problem with my passport but they were much more adamant to see it this time, asking questions such as "are you christian?" (no i am not but i said yes.) and finalizing with "you from america?" (yes. [what a freaking dumb question.]) the market area was bustling this time! i was excited to see. i walked toward the women's coop shop and got some shopping done for people back home. while picking out wares, one of the women engaged me in a conversation. i found myself explaining my purpose in hebron and showed her my photos, telling her that i need to start focusing on people, instead of the landscape. she got really excited and said that there was a person i needed to meet and talk to. so she calls him up and tells me that he will meet in 10 minutes and his daughter will pick me up at the checkpoint. wait, there is another checkpoint? (i found out there are 6? 7? checkpoints in hebron. ridiculous!) so the guy i met previously in my group excursion leads me around, showing me places i haven't seen yet. when he delivered me to the daughter, he shamelessly started asking for money, ending with phrases like "as you like" and "please". this guy is really annoying. i don't mean to be callous. what he does is really rude and i don't like being harassed.

i'm sorry but this will have to be continued later. i'm pretty exhausted. ta.

the pope's visit amongst other things

in hopes for peace and reconciliation, the pope visited israel and palestine last week. i have to say that his aspirations backfired in his face. in his wake, the traffic increased much to the chagrin of commuters in jerusalem. everyone was so irritable, the bus drivers more so. there was an influx of italian tourists. what, you don't see the pope enough in italy? everyone was more than ready to feed the pope to the dogs, which they did. the newspapers in israel printed the pope's involvement in hitler youth and the general air of anti-semitism of the roman catholics. furthermore, the entire student village was on military lockdown with snipers galore because he was landing in the helipad that is located right next to the dorms. lucky us. it seems that even though the people were looking forward to the pope's visit, it was gone soon after his arrival.

last monday was my first photo crit of the semester. it was also the first one in which my photos sparked a 30 minute debate of the differences between documentary photography and well... political undertones of the photography. because i chose to do my project on the different travel modes to hebron, i guess i could have expected nothing less. however, as stated below, i'm getting tired of the underlying political aspects. sometimes, things are just what it is. it is nothing more. i also do not want to do a critique on the relations between israel and palestine. here is where i am truly an outsider. i have never lived here nor do i have any connections with the place besides my fascination of the language and culture. i will never have the deep-rooted feelings that the israelis have accumulated over time. in a way, i feel like it is not in my place to do this project but it is one that i can do because i am a foreigner. i feel i cannot do the places and people justice in my photography because even with all my research, i will still be a 'tourist', an outsider. my photos of israel will always gravitate toward the things that have political charge to them, such as a watchtower, the wall border, military personnel, etc. i don't mean to only take pictures of that, not that i do. it is just that this is what comes from the project and it is hard to separate the politicalness of the photos, but my intentions are clear. it is merely a project documenting MY journey to hebron using egged and the arab buses. documentation and nothing more. but i cannot stop an arab israeli and a jewish israeli seeing something completely different that i mean to show.

on the road to hebron via egged

in an earlier post, i mentioned the semester project for my documentary workshop class. the class takes place on hebron road but i intend on using hebron road as it was meant to be used. today was the first day of the project, so to speak. i called יקוב, my teacher, telling him that i will be doing a dry run of the journey. since i know hebrew more than arabic, i decided to travel using egged, which for the purpose of my project i will call jewish bus. the cost of the ride is 8.80 shekels, which is barely over 2$, going from jerusalem to hebron. total time of travel was about 1 hr and 15 mins.

on the bus, i befriended a jewish woman, who made עליה to israel 5 months ago from canada. she lives in a jewish settlement 10 mins away from hebron. she told me that the bus initially traveled on hebron road before the building of the rail commenced and when it was 'safer.' after the bus was attacked on many accounts, a tunnel highway was built that bypassed the initial entry into the west bank. after 10 mins on the bus, the travelers on the left side were treated to an amazing view of the wall cutting through the landscape. i am still astounded by how close jerusalem is to the west bank area, being nearly encompassed by the giant concrete structure on almost all sides. the ride was mostly uneventful but i appreciated seeing the landscape of israel for the most part. there is a certain beauty in the hilly, deserted terrain, dotted with housing complexes or the occasional rundown buildings occupied mostly by arabs. there were also several farms along the way and i think with a little stretch of my imagination, this is probably what the area looked like 2000 years ago.... that actually might be too far a stretch.

hebron. what to say about hebron. a little history: hebron is the largest city in the west bank. it is the biblical region of judea and it is the second holiest city of judaism, after jerusalem. the most famous site of hebron is the cave of patriarchs. even though the site is holy to judaism, both christianity and islam hold the site sacred due to the connection with abraham. he bought a piece of land to bury his wife, sarah, and afterwards abraham, issac, leah, jacob, rebecca are all buried there. in recent history, as any piece of arabic land, there has been many tense conflicts between arabs and israelis. hebron is heavily patrolled by israeli military guards. rabbi moshe levinger and his wife began colonising the centre of town after israel incorporated the west bank in 1967. even though this move was illegal, it gained endorsement, even after the settlement of kiryat arba was established to draw the settlers out. each armed settler in the old city is protected by as many as four armed soldiers, who are stationed on rooftops and street corners, emboldening the ~600 jews there to parade in the streets chanting anti-arab calls and wielding guns. on february of 1994, baruch goldstein, a physician, entered the ibrahimi mosque and open fired on the praying palestinians. palestinians believe the israeli jews are stealing their rightful land and protest against the military occupation. the israeli jews believe they have every right to occupy hebron because it was jewish under abraham. however, it appears as if the palestinians always get the wrong end of the bargain. their homes are constantly decimated or taken over. they face constant harassment from the settlers.

the egged bus dropped me off in the old city. so my initial viewing of hebron was very unsettling. i was surrounded by crumbling structures, closed shops, graves, pro-zionist graffiti and gun-toting civilians and soldiers. i thought that this was hebron itself. i was mistaken after some research. even though the area looks unpopulated, there are people, both arab and jew, walking around the streets. there are many palestinian and israeli flags flying from windows and houses. however, there are more of the latter. everyone seems to be very welcoming and friendly. i visited the muslim part of the cave of patriarchs. a man there gave me a brief tour, beginning with donning of a head covering. the mosque is one of the more unassuming ones i've visited but the humbleness is appealing. there is a shrine of a stone with an imprint of a foot. my guide told me that this is abraham's footprint. interesting. i also visited the tomb of abraham, isaac and rebecca. in all, my stay was brief as service was going to start soon.

i am glad that i picked this as my project. i will get to explore a place where most people are unwilling to go to because of the heavy military occupation and threat of danger. this is one of the few times i am thankful i'm from abroad.

hebron project

for my documentary workshop class, we are to choose a place on hebron road, it can be the road itself, or the outlaying villages/places and photograph them. for my project, i want to use the road was it was meant to be used: going to hebron. i would like to make a pilgrimage of sorts there, using both arab and jewish buses. along the way, i would get off at certain spots to document the place and the people. it would also be great to photograph from the bus on the journey there. now i know that the west bank isn't the safest place to be but i have the foreign aspect working for me. hopefully, i'll be able to access jewish neighborhoods within the west bank as well as a part of the project. thank god for my holga because i don't know how i'd do this with any other camera.

efffffff... my life, kind of

today, i had my documentary workshop class that takes place on hebron road that leads into the west bank. the class trekked up and down גיבת המטוס and looked at some amazing landscape views of jerusalem. that place just can't be beat. however breathtaking and awesome the place was, i just can't find something i want to do. i want to observe the israeli-arab interaction but that's kind of hard seeing how the neighborhoods are segregated. it is also hard that i'm not originally from israel so i have no background information of the historical meaning of the place. it's quite infuriating, to be honest. the teacher, yaakov, was very encouraging and told me to think beyond the box and what i'm used to and just photograph what i feel. well then, i feel like making a journey to hebron, the city hebron road leads to. it's going to be dangerous since i will be going into the occupied territories with a camera... and sometimes being a foreigner with a camera is not a good idea, so i've learned. we shall see.

i also got to develop film for the first time today since... march 2008? it's been a while. developing color is going to be a big pain in the ass. everything has to be in the right temperature... the water level has to be right, i have to dump this there, dump this here, blah blah blah. but it was nice working with toxic chemicals. i'm not going to lie: the more toxic the art is, the more i'm intrigued by it and will dip my bare hands into it. speaking of, they wouldn't let me process color bare handed so boo but i got to do b&w with no gloves! i probably shouldn't be so excited about this because my hands are super dry and smell toxic... but it just got me in the photo mood, which is exhilarating! however, the film was not so exciting. they came out crappy. oh well. stupid bulb setting! dammitt! i had some really good shots today.

anyways, sarah invited me over for dinner. we had hamburger patties, mashed potatoes, israeli salad, two veggie dishes of some kind, indian rice, zucchini soup and bread. quite amazing. sarah then busted out mango & passion fruit sorbet. yum! i should host a dinner party soon and show off my awesome cooking skillz. haha. just kidding. but honestly, i need to start exercising or i'm going to put on the weight i've lost!

after dinner, i went salsa dancing! rothberg international school holds weekly salsa dance lessons. it's fun. my first time and i liked it. what i didn't like was this israeli translating condescendingly to be as if i didn't know anything. honestly, that's the one thing that bugs me about israel. i don't care if you have an opinion about how you think i'm some stupid american tourist, just keep it to yourself. don't show off. it doesn't impress me. (so far, only guys have done this to me.) another thing, this really weird looking dude gave me the once over... twice and tried this come hither look on me... what?! no. after the lesson, i danced with joseph and he's an aggressive leader. but the boy can move. :) afterwards, i was asked to dance! haha. it was fun dancing and i might go again next week!

lasly, i think for my pesach break, i'm going to go to egypt and jordan for the first half and travel israel for the second half. i'm going to stick to the middle east instead of eurotripping because i'm here and the middle east is just as, or even more, fascinating and fun than europe. that said, i'm tired so i'm going to bed.